


Our Story is Told from the Outside (But it's Still Ours)

by bentleys



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Asexual Character, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-01
Updated: 2013-05-01
Packaged: 2017-12-10 01:32:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/780226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bentleys/pseuds/bentleys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose Tyler meets a funny bloke who calls himself the Doctor in a bar one night. She rather likes him. (the-Doctor-is-human!AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Story is Told from the Outside (But it's Still Ours)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for trope_bingo, the "au: all-human" square. This has been sitting in my drafts for a year now, so I thank trope_bingo for finally getting me to post it, even if I'm still not happy with it.

Mrs. Jan Templeton turns from the window, nose wrinkled, whole face pulled down by the force of her distaste. “It isn’t _decent,_ ” she says. “Those two, consorting about like a married couple. I haven’t seen any rings on _those_ fingers.”

 “Come off it,” says Linds from the table she’s unloading the groceries onto. To Linds, her Aunt Jan is ancient; fifty-eight or so and probably from another world. “No one believes that rubbish about having to get married first anymore,” she continues.

Her aunt barely glances up at her. “And she seemed like such a nice girl, too, that Rose Tyler. He’s probably _pressuring_ her; I saw it on the television.”

“You can’t trust everything you see on the telly, auntie. ‘Sides, Anna down the way’s told everyone she’s a lesbian and she’s still nice.”

  
Mrs. Templeton scowls and turns to the safety of her good old-fashioned tea kettle. “Hmph,” she says. “And they _wonder_ why this county’s gone to the dogs.”

Linds rolls her eyes at the alien-ness of her aunt. She blows a bubble with her gum, lets it get bigger and bigger until it pops, harsh against the silence.

 

\--

Chad is almost twenty-one, blond, and presumed gay by nearly everyone. In reality he has a thing for women who wear tracksuits and are taller than him.

“You know your daughter’s going to run off with that man with the funny ears,” he tells Jackie Tyler when he sees her in the market on Tuesday.

She looks up from the bananas to peer at him. “What’ve you been listening too, the local gossip? Course she won’t, silly. It’s my Rose.”

“I’m just _sayin’_ ,” Chad mutters. “You can’t know with a man like that, a traveler. He’ll be wanting to move on soon enough.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jackie says resolutely, dropping a bundle of bananas into her basket. “She’s my Rose. If she _does_ travel she’ll always come back to me. He’s promised—“

The chorus of Queen’s _Fat Bottomed Girls_ fills the small convenience store. “Sorry, that’s me,” Chad apologises, pulling a sleek purple phone from his pocket.

Jackie Tyler walks on, unperturbed.

\--

The Doctor is – thirty-one? Maybe? He’s not quite sure, a fact that Rose finds hilarious on the day they meet, that this mysterious stranger doesn’t know his own age.

He’d gone into a club of some sort by accident and Rose had made a comment like, “oh, enjoy the girls’ company?” and the Doctor had said, plain as day, “Oh, no, I didn’t have sex with any of the women there. They’re very nice, though.” He ended the last bit with a grin.

Rose had blinked, taken-aback. Something about the way he’d said ‘sex’ made her say, “You like the boys, then.”

“No!” the Doctor had laughed, eyes crinkling up at the edges. “No, actually I’m not much interested in sex with anybody.”

First he’d told her what ‘asexual’ meant, and then he’d told her what it meant for _him._

“Huh,” Rose had said, and then tried to imagine not wanting to jump Laura’s boyfriend’s bones every time they came over for tea.

“Interesting,” she’d added, and the Doctor’d smiled as he sipped his beverage.

An hour or so later and she’s slightly tipsy. The Doctor seems rather more intoxicated, which she finds amusing since she’s pretty sure he had less to drink than she did.

“You’re really funny, you know,” she tells him.

“Really?” he asks. “I get that a lot. ‘Cept I think people usually mean it as ‘funny in the head’ and not ‘funny ha ha.’”

“I mean it as both,” Rose says seriously, and the Doctor wrinkles his nose at her from across the table.

She thinks she rather likes him.

\--

Jackie loves her Rose. She always has, and she always will, regardless of whether or not Rose decides to run off and get married, or who she will get married to.

She’s told people this. She had to tell old Mr. Robin down the street rather loudly, actually, that he’d better not be insinuating that her daughter was any thing less than a nice young lady just because she’s got a new friend.

All the same, though, it wouldn’t hurt to _meet_ the man.

“So, are you going to bring this ‘Doctor’ of yours around the house sometime?” she mentions to Rose, innocently. Rose sighs, rolls her eyes, lets a slow breath out through her teeth and says, “Fine. I’ll bring him over for supper, Mum.”

\--

“There’s a whole big world up there,” Rose says. The grass is digging into her back from her position, spread-eagled on the hillside next to the Doctor.

The Doctor makes a noise in the back of his throat. “Don’t I know it,” he says. “I—when I was young, I wanted to be an astronaut, you know?”

He wiggles in place where he lies, shoulder pressing against Rose’s.

“But I can’t. And it’s not the same, this.” She hears him take a breath, in-and-out. “I’ve been looking for that feeling ever since, the feeling of walking among the stars.”

She pauses. “Found it yet?” she asks, voice carefully light.

He turns to grin at her, suddenly all wide and bright and Doctor-y again.

“Working on it,” he says, and Rose lifts her hand to entwine her fingers with his.

\--

Jackie’s not sure what she expected, but it’s definitely not the man that comes through the door. He’s taller than she thought, but with a thin frame. Short cropped hair, ears that stick out a bit, and a rather imposing nose, but he’s not too bad, really. He’s sporting a leather jacket which Jackie is suspicious of at first, but they both assure her that the Doctor is definitely not part of any motorcycle gangs.

“Nice to meet you,” he says to her cheerfully (the northern accent strikes her as funny as well, but that _smile,_ no wonder Rose’s fallen for him) and she carefully takes his proffered hand. 

He’s got a good handshake, at least.

\--

Jackie was going to make them all dinner, she was, but she ends up just getting pizza from down the way, which is probably better for everyone in the end.

Jackie has two slices and then mostly just watches as her daughter and her daughter’s Doctor devour the rest over a lively discussion of which Star Trek series is the best (the Doctor takes the Original Series, of course, but Rose surprises her by backing Deep Space Nine. Neither of them wins.)

“You’re all right,” she tells him during a lull in the conversation. “Hm?” he blinks up at her.

“You’re decent,” she says again. “If Rose is gonna run off and marry someone, it ought to be you.”

The Doctor shares a look with Rose. “Don’t think that’ll be a problem. But thanks.”

Rose laughs softly at his side, curls her arm around his shoulders. “Yeah. Thanks, Mum.”

Jackie looks at them both, snuggled up and pressed tight against each other, and has a flash of longing for Pete. She rummages for the old camera she knows is in one of these cupboards. “Hold that pose,” she chirrups as she snaps a picture and Rose and the Doctor yelp and separate.

Yeah, he’s all right.

\--

Paul Ribbens is not sure why anyone in their right mind would want the car currently in front of him. It’s ugly, it’s old (though it does have surprisingly good mileage) and it’s a bizarre shade of blue. He’s never been one to begrudge a customer their choice, though, so he settles for just pursing his lips disapprovingly.

She’s the modern type, this one, which to Paul means she doesn’t know what’s good for her. She’s all young and long haired with those loose jeans and zipped jackets—Paul remembers the good old days when ladies were expected to dress properly. (Paul likes to ignore the fact that he lived through the seventies.)

The blonde turns back to her boyfriend, both of them pumping their fists into the air in a gesture of mutual success. Paul collects the papers and eyes her skeptically once more.

“You’re sure this is one you want?” he asks the girl.

She pauses in her gesturing across at her boyfriend and turns towards him, flashing a wide toothy grin.

“Trust me, mister,” she says, the tip of her tongue dancing over the ridge of her teeth, “I know _exactly_ what I’m looking for.”

Paul nearly believes her. He lets the keys drop into her outstretched palm, and decides against saying anything else.

\--

It’s around midsummer, on one of those sickly-hot days where the clouds don’t cover much. Jackie Tyler finds a deep-blue envelope slipped underneath her front door.

The note inside reads:

_Run off with the Doctor. Yes, I’m safe, and I promise to call._

_Love ya, Rose.  
_

Rose has drawn a little smiley by her name and underneath there’s scrawled in a different writing, _Promise I’ll bring her back. Take care, Jackie Tyler.—the Doctor._

Jackie smiles down at the paper and pins it up on the fridge with the blurred polaroid of Rose and the Doctor she took that one evening, when he came over for pizza.

“You had _better_ call, Rose Tyler,” she tells it sternly.

\--

A few hours later, Jackie goes out on a quick stop for a few groceries. The cashier, Shauna, rings her up and then asks hopefully, “So I heard your Rose’s run off with that fellow?”

Jackie Tyler piles her bags onto one arm. “Yeah,” she grins as she tells Shauna. “Yeah, she has.”


End file.
